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The old boys paying children’s school fees

Pupils at an independent school whose parents cannot afford the £9,000 fees are being funded by old boys. They are the modern day philanthropists

Catherine Nixey

February 2 2010, 12:01am, The Times

A boy sits down to write a thank you letter. Not for sweets, or for a PlayStation, but for his schooling. He writes to his sponsor about what he has been studying; the subjects he is enjoying, and what he wants to be when he is older. But he is not a boy in Africa, thanking a donor for his £250-ayear education. He’s a boy in England, thanking a donor for his £9,390-a-year education at one of England’s best independent schools.

It is philanthropy on a Victorian scale. King Edward’s School in Birmingham has started a “sponsor a child” scheme in which donors commit to sponsoring a boy for his entire education. A total cost, if the boy is in year 7, of about £65,000.…

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